An international competition is inviting creatives to produce an animation that illustrates a rare and prophetic audio recording of Douglas Adams talking in 1993 about the evolution of the book.

In 1993 Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhikers Guide of the Galaxy, recorded a short piece of audio for his US publisher of the time -- Bob Stein of Voyager Expanded Books. In this short recording, Adams charts the evolution of the book from the ‘hardware problems’ of writing on rocks, to scrolls, to the bound book and finally the silicon chip.

Entries will be judged by national treasure and close friend of Adams, Stephen Fry; Bob Stein; The Guardian picture editor, Ranjit Dhaliwal; and Merlin Nation and Chris Angelkov from multi-disciplinary design practice Atyp.

The competition invites creatives to produce an animation that best illustrates the words of Douglas Adams. Entrants are invited to use part, or all, of the Douglas Adams recording to create an animation to complement the words. You can hear and download the recording here.

Entrants are asked to upload entries to a new user-generated competition platform called Launchpad6. The public will be able to vote for their favourite animation in order to help the judges get down to a longlist of candidates. The judging panel will then choose their winner, and the winning entrant will be announced on Towel Day – the annual celebration on the May 25, which is a tribute Douglas Adams. The competition is run by literary tech blog The Literary Platform.

The winner of the competition will win an iPad 2 with Douglas Adams books and apps and a Don’t Panic towel to carry on Towel Day. Selected entrants will also see their work hosted on The Literary Platform and exhibited at a launch event to tie in with Towel Day.

The competition platform is now open for entries and the deadline for uploading entries is April 15. The longlist will be announced on April 30 with final judging leading up to the Towel Day announcement on May 25.